Originally posted by Berzerker
Exactly! This is partly why Madison added the 9th Amendment, there are just too many rights to list so the Framers focused on those rights considered the most important and most likely to come under attack by tyrants. Guns, God, and speech...these were considered the most important and the rights tyrants would target first...
But when you hear someone say we don't have a right if it isn't written in the Bill of Rights, you're listening to someone who, for whatever reason, ignores not only the 9th Amendment, but the purpose of the Constitution - to limit government by granting it specific powers. It shouldn't matter if we have a right to privacy, only what enumerated powers government has to infringe upon our privacy.
While I'm no fan of Alexander Hamilton, he did raise a valid objection to adding a Bill of Rights to the Constitution. He pointed out a BoR was not needed because the Constitution as it was written WAS a Bill of Rights - by limiting government to a handful of activities. And he added a warning and a prediction that has come true - he said if you add a BoR then there will be people who use that short list of rights to deny other rights we have using the very "logic" Bork and Limbaugh have used, i.e., if a right doesn't appear in the BoR, then it doesn't exist. How do these braintrusts respond to someone asking if that means we have no right to sleep, eat, or work when we want? These rights aren't in the Constitution either... Nor is there a government power to dictate when we sleep, eat, or work...
Exactly! This is partly why Madison added the 9th Amendment, there are just too many rights to list so the Framers focused on those rights considered the most important and most likely to come under attack by tyrants. Guns, God, and speech...these were considered the most important and the rights tyrants would target first...
But when you hear someone say we don't have a right if it isn't written in the Bill of Rights, you're listening to someone who, for whatever reason, ignores not only the 9th Amendment, but the purpose of the Constitution - to limit government by granting it specific powers. It shouldn't matter if we have a right to privacy, only what enumerated powers government has to infringe upon our privacy.
While I'm no fan of Alexander Hamilton, he did raise a valid objection to adding a Bill of Rights to the Constitution. He pointed out a BoR was not needed because the Constitution as it was written WAS a Bill of Rights - by limiting government to a handful of activities. And he added a warning and a prediction that has come true - he said if you add a BoR then there will be people who use that short list of rights to deny other rights we have using the very "logic" Bork and Limbaugh have used, i.e., if a right doesn't appear in the BoR, then it doesn't exist. How do these braintrusts respond to someone asking if that means we have no right to sleep, eat, or work when we want? These rights aren't in the Constitution either... Nor is there a government power to dictate when we sleep, eat, or work...
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